be happy for this moment.

A little smile, a word of cheer, a bit of love from someone near, a little gift from one held dear, best wishes for the coming year… these make a Merry Christmas!
John Greenleaf Whittier

I start thinking about it in September. It is the best time of year.

But it's not the tree, the stockings and the cookies I think about. It's the Christmas card.

I love, love, love sending and receiving Christmas cards. For me, it's a throw back and homage to real, honest to goodness mail. Hand-addressed envelopes, pictures of babies in stockings and Labradors in the snow. I love hearing about how everyone is doing and seeing photos of their families.

Considering I do all of the addressing and stamping of the envelopes, I get the final say in the design. Of course Nick throws in his silly and random ideas. "Oh, let's Photoshop our heads on racehorses crossing the finish line into the new year!"

Uh, no.

Since photo cards of my favorite to receive, last year we did this:


This year, I've been browsing the options and here are my favorite Christmas cards from Shutterfly. These meet my multiple photo and actually say "Merry Christmas" guidelines. (Obviously, they will be photos of us and now pretty stock photo families).




The site also has really cute custom Christmas tags and holiday party invitations. And because I love a good deal, I'll share that bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly too!

Now that's a reason to celebrate.